Nevermind the fact that it took an absolute miracle for the team last year to make the post-season and that didn't even start until two months after we traded for Beltran. If Rice alum Lance Berkman hadn't have torn his knee up playing flag ****ing football, we'd probably be in the wild card lead at this point. With the way Beltran's played this year, I'm not sure you can say that if we resigned him. I'll take Miracle Taveras and his $310K over Beltran and his $15 million any day of the week.
But Beltran has that TOTALLY SWEET .317 OBP!!!! I'm so pissed we didn't sign that guy!!! (btw..that's not a typo...seriously.... .317 OBP.....damn, that's bad)
So if the season ended today, you boys would be happy about it? Go from one game away from the World Series to out of the playoffs? If that's a success in your book, then frankly I don't know what would constitute a failure. Seriously. This team has the pitching staff to be in first place. It does not have the bats to be in first place. Drayton gave away two bats this offseason for zilch. See any correlation there? Nah, you probably don't.
No one has said they'd be happy about the season if it ended today. Still though, you haven't answered my question: How did you expect this season to go AFTER the "disastrous" off season? Did you expect them to be in the thick of the wild card race at the end of July? You certainly did not expect them to be within 5 games of the playoffs on September 1st after their 15-23 start. As of today, would you still bet they would NOT be within 5 games of the playoffs on September 1st?
I expected them to be over 10 games back of St Louis and out of the playoffs. As of today's standings I was right. Had Drayton had anything other than the worst offseason in Astros history, we would be competing for the division crown, not fighting for the wild card scraps. See this is the problem. Drayton is very content with this season. He's thinking, 'hey I didn't spend any money in the offseason, and we still have a chance at the playoffs.' He's content with this version of mediocrity. After last season, he should have been striving for excellence. Instead, he settles for less than the best.
Beltran's .317 OBP would have us competing with the Cardinals right now...no doubt about it. If we'd have had Berkman, whose knee was probably torn by McLane, for the whole season, we would be in the wild card lead at this point. That's more disastrous than losing Beltran and his getting on base at that rabid clip.
I love it when people bust out the ol "if the season ended today..." What... is Bud Selig all of a sudden going to stop playing baseball on July 26th? Was there some unforseen memo sent out?? Hell... if the season ended today, the A's (not the Yankees) would be the wild card in the AL... that can't be good for business. The bottom line is that yes, this team played horribly in the 1st half... but they aren't anymore. Yes, they could have forked over the $150 million to try to ensure that Beltran would sign (still not a guarantee, though... he wanted NY), but how would it have played out had he underperformed, as he's doing this year, and we had absolutely no chances to improve? Another fallacy was that this team was flawless last year in getting w/in one game of the series. It took a miracle run of 36-10 to barely squeak in.... sure, we were all happy, but "if the season ended on July 26th last year"... there would be complaints everywhere (and there'd be no excuses either). Frankly, this team has suddenly been more consistent in the way they win their ballgames... doing it strictly with pitching and timely hitting (whereas last year's team would be awful on offense for weeks at a time... then go 10 games with tearing the cover off the ball... with only Roy/Roger being the solid pitchers, and they were both pitching worse last year than they are this year). In the end, we likely will not need another miracle run to win this year's wild card... we actually control our own destiny from here on out (provided we don't collapse to the Mets this weekend, and play respectably in our 10 games against the Cubs). In many ways, its going to be EASIER from this point on, than last year, for this team to be in playoff contention.... and I have no problems with that.
.330, .306, .295 ...... .317 OBP looks mighty nice if you look at who the Astros are throwing out in the outfield. It makes you realize just how good Berkman and Ensberg are playing.
TJ - i think what the boys are saying is GIVEN the offseason, and GIVEN the expectations (or lack thereof) of this team (of which I had none)....you have to be happy about where we are right now. When we were 15 games under and loking like we should have Chico's Bail Bonds stenciled on our backs, if a genie said to you (time to use that willing suspension of disbelief) "TJ- you can take your chances on your own or I will put the Astros 3 games out of the WC on July 26"...you would probably pick the latter. I know I would have because I didnt think we had a prayer. In fact, someone suggested a tip jar bet of like 50 bucks if we were within 5 games of the WC at some pt in the season....and I think I said "make it 1000"....whoever it was - I owe you a beer, or 10! Thanks for not taking the bet! TJ - as a fan....you gotta be pleased.....no?
TJ - eat some crow man!!!! If yours isn't cooked right, come have some of mine......its DELICIOUS!!!!!
Of course I'm happy the team has risen from the grave to have an above .500 record. But then again, that's like congratulating your child for raising their average to a C after a string of F's.
350K, 350K, 500K... those are what our outfielders are making this year. Beltran makes that much (combined) every month.... it makes you realize just how overpaid that guy is for his 2 weeks of selling his soul to the Boras (ahem, Devil).
Who says they're going to stop at C, though... would you discourage your child from continuing to improve? If this team's health remains... there's no reason why they can't roll through the rest of the season. The only team they've struggled with all year has been St. Louis... and they only have 5 games left total with them (3 of them being home games).
I'll type slower... Prior to game one of the season did you think they would be COMPETING for a PLAYOFF spot in late July? When they were 15-23 you DID NOT think they would be competing for a playoff spot this season - correct (simple question)? Now that they are competing for a playoff spot, aren;t you the least bit happy about that?
But that C student could one day become President. Same as the wild card team, like four of the last five World Series champs, that could end up winning it all.
Bad analogy. If a child works hard to bring their grades up in the equivalent of one semester, they certainly deserve some recognition. Although I guess if you were the parent in that situation, you must be comparing yourself to Drayton McLane and it is all your fault for the Fs and the child's credit for the Cs.
